Oxford Playhouse is thrilled to announce a double bill of Terence Rattigan’s one act masterpieces Table Number Seven (from Separate Tables) and The Browning Version. Summer 1954 will run at The Playhouse from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15 February.

Multiple award winners Dame Siân Phillips, Nathaniel Parker and Lolita Chakrabarti lead an ensemble cast directed by James Dacre performing Rattigan’s most personal works which are paired for the first time to capture one quietly momentous evening seventy years ago. Together, they present Rattigan as one of the great twentieth century chroniclers of the paradoxes of the human heart

Completing the cast are Alexandra Dowling, Angela Jones, Jeremy Neumark Jones, Simon Coates, Richenda Carey, Kishore Walker, Pamela Miles, Fiona Tong, Rosalind Lailey and Bertie Hawes.

Nathaniel Parker is well-loved by TV audiences for playing the title character in the long-running BBC series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. As well as countless lead roles in television dramas, he has regularly appeared onstage for the RSC, including Henry VIII in the internationally acclaimed Wolf Hall and Bringing Up The Bodies in Stratford-Upon-Avon, in the West End and on Broadway.

In a career spanning eight decades, multi award-winning Dame Siân Phillips’ many memorable screen credits range from her BAFTA-winning role in the BBC’s adaptation of I, Claudius in 1976 to guest roles in New Tricks, Under Milk Wood, Casualty, and Lewis. Siân’s prestigious stage career has seen her nominated for Olivier Awards for Pal Joey, A Little Night Music, Cabaret and the title role in Marlene.

Lolita Chakrabarti OBE is an award-winning actress and playwright. Her adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi won her the prestigious Olivier Award for Best Play. Stage credits include: Gertrude, opposite Tom Hiddleston, in Hamlet (RADA), Fanny & Alexander (Old Vic), John Gabriel Borkman (Donmar Warehouse), and Free Outgoing (Royal Court). Most recently she starred in The Hunt (St Ann’s Warehouse, New York). Her TV credits include: Silo (Apple), Screw (Channel Four), Vigil (BBC) Showtrial (BBC), The Wheel of Time (Amazon), The Casual Vacancy (BBC1/HBO), Delicious (Sky), Beowulf (ITV), Jekyll and Hyde (ITV), Riviera (Sky), Criminal (Netflix) and Born to Kill (CH4). Returning to the city, Chakrabarti joined the University of Oxford’s Cultural Programme as a Visiting Fellow in 2021.

Summer, 1954.

The atmosphere at The Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth, is marked by a blend of repressed emotions and post-war gentility. Each of the staff and guests has their own reason for seeking the solace of quiet anonymity, but trying to hide from the social and cultural change sweeping over the country is proving impossible.

Meanwhile, in the heart of the Midlands, the end of the school term brings to a climax the intrigues, deceptions and lies in the lives of its teachers. The ensuing implosion of classicist Andrew Crocker Harris’s career triggers the collapse of his marriage.

Britain is changing. Nothing will ever be the same again.

The creative team includes Director James Dacre, Set and Costume Designer Mike Britton, Lighting Designer Charles Balfour, Composer Valgeir Sigurðsson, Sound Designer Bella Kear, Associate Director Sarah Stacey and Movement Director Arielle Smith, with casting by Ginny Schiller CDG.

James Dacre is an Olivier and UK Theatre Award-winning Director and Creative Producer who recently launched Living Theatre Productions. He was Artistic Director of Royal & Derngate Theatres from 2013-2023 where he produced more than 120 shows, of which 60 toured both nationally and internationally, and 42 transferred to London and were recognised with Olivier, Evening Standard, UK Theatre, WhatsOnStage and The Stage awards. He is a Board Director of Spirit of 2012, a Trustee for The Theatres Trust and Talawa Theatre Company and a Franco-British Young Leader.

Summer 1954 is produced by Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Living Theatre Productions.